Removing a Kubernetes Namespace Stuck in Terminating

A namespace can stay in the Terminating state forever, typically when a resource inside it has a finalizer whose controller is gone, for example after the operator was uninstalled first. The namespace’s own spec.finalizers cannot be emptied with kubectl edit. It can only be changed through the namespace’s finalize subresource.

Clearing the finalizers skips whatever cleanup they guard. First check kubectl get all,pvc -n <namespace> and remove what you can normally.

In the first terminal, start an API proxy on 127.0.0.1:8001:

kubectl proxy

In a second terminal, write the namespace with an empty finalizer list and PUT it to the finalize endpoint:

namespacename=...
cat > tmp.json <<EOF
{
  "apiVersion": "v1",
  "kind": "Namespace",
  "metadata": {
    "name": "$namespacename"
  },
  "spec": {
    "finalizers": []
  }
}
EOF

curl -k -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X PUT --data-binary @tmp.json http://127.0.0.1:8001/api/v1/namespaces/$namespacename/finalize

The namespace disappears right after the request succeeds. Stop kubectl proxy afterwards.